Holiday Fruit and Nut Fudge

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Holiday Fudge made with White Chocolate, Graham Crackers, Peaches, Mango, Strawberries, Walnuts and Pistachios

My Animal Cracker Fudge was such a big hit last year, that I decided to do a version with brightly colored fruits this year.

Freeze dried fruit retains a very bright color naturally. Its sole ingredient is the fruit alone. Most taste slightly tart, which is perfect to add to the sweet fudge base.

Dried fruit is duller in color, and often treated with sulfites to prevent browning. Sometimes they have added sugar, and even have artificial coloring and flavors added.

Trader Joe’s, Target, Natural Food stores, and the produce section in some grocery stores are easy places to find freeze dried fruit.

I like to use white chocolate chips like Trader Joe’s or Sunspire (found in natural food stores), because they actually have cocoa butter in them.

Vanilla chips or white candy coating will work too, but they don’t have cocoa butter, and often contain less desirable hydrogenated fats. They melt and mix very easily though.

Guittard white chocolate wafers can usually be found in gourmet food stores, or the gourmet section of some grocery stores.

Nice, but will cost 2-3 times as much.

Start by placing the white chocolate chips with a little butter in a glass mixing bowl. I used a 2.5 liter bowl.

Place it on top of a pot with simmering water that comes up just shy of the bottom of the bowl. The bowl should not touch the water or the bottom of the pot. Use a pot and bowl combination where the bottom of the bowl only extends about halfway down in the pot, and the pot rim supports the upper half of the bowl. Stir the chocolate chips every once in a while as the chocolate chips melt.

Adjust the heat and keep it low so that the water does not sputter and splash into the bowl. You definitely do not want any water getting into the melted white chocolate or fudge.

Watch it closely and lift the bowl out of the pot onto a towel when there are still a few lumps left. I should have removed this sooner, but I was taking pictures.

Next come the marshmallows.
Dandies are a good vegan marshmallow that is free of artificial flavors and colors. However, I found the resulting fudge sweeter and less chewy. The toppings also did not stick as well.

Place the marshmallows in a separate medium sized mixing bowl, and microwave on high for 1 minute. (This is actually a good recipe to use up marshmallows that are still good, but have gone sticky in the bag.)

Add the microwaved marshmallows to the melted white chocolate.

Use a rubber spatula to mix the melted white chocolate and melted marshmallows together until it is barely blended.

If the mixture seems too stiff, place the bowl back over the pot with hot water (with the heat turned off).

If you prefer not to use the microwave, you can also melt the marshmallows with 3-4 T. additional butter in a pot on the stove, and then add them to the melted white chocolate. The mixture will be harder to mix though.

Add in the chopped crackers or cookies, fruit, and nuts.

Mix until blended.
Lift bowl out of the pot and onto the towel to dry briefly.

Scoop mixture into an 8″ x 8″ square pan that has been lined with foil, and very well greased.

It’s extremely important that you grease the bottom and sides of the foil generously to make removal of the foil later easy. Waxed paper, even if well greased, will stick like crazy to the fudge.

Press the fudge flat, with the flat side of the spatula, evenly into the pan.

Fudge made with White Chocolate, Vanilla Sandwich Cookies, Almonds, Strawberries, Pistachios, and Mini Dark Chocolate Chips

Sprinkle the top with additional fruit and nuts.

Fudge made with Semi-Sweet Chocolate, Graham Crackers, Walnuts, Strawberries, Oranges and Pistachios

Press the toppings into the fudge well, so that they stick.

Chill for 1-2 hours until set. Lift fudge out of the pan and peel off the foil. Cut into small pieces to serve.

Fudge made with White Chocolate, Hula Creem Crackers, Almonds, Walnuts, Cranberries, Oranges, Strawberries, and Pistachios

I love the festive oranges and strawberries together.
So colorful and pretty!

(Note: I have edited the recipe process to make it better and easier.)